Mohs Surgery Recovery: Day 1

Well, that's me right after surgery, just beginning to feel the stitches. We were a little late getting to the doctor's today. We woke up to a little snow, but the main street was a sheet of ice. We hardly made it up the hill. I'm not sure why they had school at all today; not even a two-hour delay. Anyway, we got there a little after 8 and by 9-ish, I was in the waiting room while they looked at the tissue they cut. Lots of old people in the waiting room with me. The doc said I'm probably one of the youngest patients to have that surgery in their office. I must say, the worst part of the original cutting was the shots to numb me up. The cauterizing was a little off-putting, but I couldn't feel it, just hear it.

A little after 10, they called me back to the room and said they had gotten all the cancer. The doc started to discuss how he was going to stitch it up. Chris actually came back with me and saw the hole in my head. He said it was the size of a quarter and looked like someone had stuck a lit cigarette into it. Yum. Anyway, the doc said he was going to have to make a football shape around the hole so the stitching would look ok. They told Chris to go back to the waiting room and then numbed me up some more, yay. The nurse put some kind of soap all over my face...I mean, all over, lips, eyebrows, even in my hair. I think there's still some on me, actually. The doc took forever to come back in, but once he did they started cutting some more. By the time they got to doing the stitches and more cauterizing, there was a spot I could definitely feel something. I told them, but it actually felt better than them giving me another shot, so I just let it go. He gave me a script for Vicodin that Chris and I picked up while we got lunch.

The doc told me to take the pain pills when I got them, to not wait for it to hurt. So I did. It didn't say anything on the label about taking it with food, thank goodness because I really did not feel like eating. I had a migraine on top of my forehead pain. I was about to call the doctor's office when they called me. I told them that the pain pills didn't seem to be working too well and the chick asked me if I was making sure I ate when I took it. I said no and she told me I should because it could make me feel sick if I took them on an empty stomach. Well, my third round of Vicodin, Mom came over to visit, and I ended up running to the kitchen to puke. That chick totally jinxed me. I called the pharmacy and she told me to take ibuprofen. Half hour after taking just two ibuprofen pills I was feeling 100% better. So ibuprofen it is from now on.

For the next two nights I have to sleep in the recliner. Not the most comfortable place for me. Our stupid furniture makes me hot, but then I'm cold. It's a constant battle; and I can't lay my head down. Argh. I also hate that I can't do anything for myself. I had to take off work today and tomorrow and possibly Monday, depending on how I feel. I'm not supposed to do anything but sit here for two days and then I still have to take it easy. No bending over or lifting stuff.

To sum up, we were there for four hours, they got all the cancer in one cut, and I'm pretty sure she said the measurement of my stitches was 4.0. I thought that was inches at first, but now I don't know. I don't think it's quite 4 inches.